My Right vs. Your Rights

                As a small government conservative, few things are more important than protecting the God given rights of all people.  However, in today’s society, the term “God given rights” has been severely stretched.  Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to personal property, the pursuit of happiness; these things are all God given rights.  You’re permitted to say what you want, so long as it does not incite violence.  You’re permitted to worship how you want, so long as it does not violate the law.  These things are your God given rights because they take nothing away from the rights of others.  But there are some things today that are mislabeled as rights that infringe on the rights of others.

                The right to choice, concerning abortion; this is not a right, because it infringes on the rights of others.  It infringes on the child’s right to life.  If not for that, true conservatives would be in full support, but it’s not really the woman’s body in question here.  Except in a few cases of rape, that child is there because of the choice that the mother made.  The father made the same choice, but as of today, science has yet to come up with a way to split the responsibility between the two.  The child didn’t decided to infringe on the woman.  The woman decided to have sex, likely unprotected, and then became pregnant.  Our actions have consequences.  I wouldn’t force a woman to raise the child, but that’s where adoption agencies step in.  It’s arguable that the institutions that parentless children have to go through are inefficient, but what isn’t arguable is that death is always a worse choice.

                The right to free healthcare; this also infringes on the rights of others.  This particular post will not debate the effect that socialized health care has on the health care system, just whether or not it’s right.  I’ll save that for a later blog.  What I want to deal with here is right itself.  It’s not a God given right, because it forces someone else to pay for it.  Healthcare is expensive no matter how you go about it.  It’s just a matter of whether you pay for it yourself, or the unwilling taxpayer.  You most certainly have the right to health care through hard work, and prioritizing.  If you have frivolous spending in your budget (You probably do, since most of this country does), than you can afford healthcare.  Healthcare is a product, and it’s your responsibility, not the responsibility of those that were more careful with their money.  You have the right to your own property, as they have a right to yours.  They don’t owe you just because they are better off than you.

                The right to a job; this suggests that regardless of your work ethic, that society owes you a job.  This isn’t the case.  You have the right to seek a job, the right to earn a job, and the right to have the job that you earned, but employers have the right to hire as much or as little as they choose, and they have the right to not hire those that they choose not to.  If you have a right to a job, then that means if you’re the type of person to show up late and hung over on a daily basis, and spends most of the day pretending to work, and accomplishing nothing.  This person has no right to a job.  He does, however, have the right to redeem himself.  He has the right to get an alarm clock, the right to stop drinking on weekends, and the right to be a hard worker.  Then he’ll have earned the privilege of a job.  Some more work, and he just might earn the privilege of a promotion, or a better job.   The right to be a decent employee doesn’t infringe on the rights of others.  In fact, it actually does some good for others.  The right to a job forces someone who may or may not want you to hire you. 

                God given rights do not infringe on the rights of others.  They do not force you to provide goods and services for others.  They don’t take your rights away.  Society extends past you.  You need to take others into consideration.  A mindset that believes that the world somehow owes you something is a delusion.  Meth addicts have this mind view.  It’s considered anti-social behavior.  Your God given rights only include those that don’t infringe on the rights of others.